The automorphism group of a free-by-cyclic groups in rank 2

O. Bogopolski, A. Martino, E. Ventura

Published 2006-02-15Version 1

Let $\phi$ be an automorphism of a free group $F_n$ of rank $n$, and let $M_{\phi}=F_n \rtimes_{\phi} \mathbb{Z}$ be the corresponding mapping torus of $\phi$. We study the group $Out(M_{\phi})$ under certain technical conditions on $\phi$. Moreover, in the case of rank 2, we classify the cases when this group is finite or virtually cyclic, depending on the conjugacy class of the image of $\phi$ in $GL_2(\mathbb{Z})$.